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VoyageLA interviews CEO Terence Mulholland

VoyageLA highlights the best of LA, sharing stories that help give LA a little bit of that small town community charm focusing on independent, creative, local entrepreneurs, businesses and artists. This is their interview with Founder and CEO Terence Mulholland.

Terence with his wife, Leda, and their daughter, Helena.

“Today we’d like to introduce you to Terence Mulholland.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Terence. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I spent many years as in independent consultant designing broadband networks for the major cable TV companies around the US. The travel involved was considerable and when my wife became pregnant with our first child I decided that a change of pace was necessary to spend the time I sought with our soon to be born daughter. In June of 2004, Helena was born and in August of the same year I officially opened Beyond Home Theater, a systems integration company that designed theaters and smart home technology systems for residences in the LA area. By 2006, we were a healthy company with a great client list. Since then we have grown our revenue and reputation, curating an ever more refined brand selection to ensure our clients the very best products available with a focus on performance and reliability. Our tagline is “Performance Technology for Your Home”, an indication of our commitment to great results and simplicity of use. We are the ONLY U.S. integration company that offers an all-encompassing two-year warranty of our systems, an acknowledgement of the high level of expectations we set for ourselves and our products. Confidence in the team and our services has led to our most significant source of new clientele being referral from existing clients. From TV show runners, to directors, producers and big Hollywood names our name rises confidently in the conversation of “who should I bring in to design my new theater?” 2016 was our best year yet and 2017 is on track to move the needle even higher.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Our initial successes in our first three years were later tempered by the economic crash of 2008 and the resulting housing collapse. The burden for some companies was too great and several noteworthy competitors closed their doors. We were fortunate to have already acquired a clientele that kept us busy through those trying times but for the first time since 2004 we saw a drop-in revenue that was tough to endure. It did however, gave us the time to focus diligently on our processes and enabled us to become ever more efficient through our use of project management software and design systems. By 2012, with the housing retreat in the rear-view mirror, our time spent on process refinement was really starting to show its value in productivity increases and a reduction in cost to our customers.

Please tell us about Beyond Home Theater.
Beyond Home Theater has today evolved into a full-service systems integration company that provides theaters and automation systems for both residential homes and commercial businesses that include offices, restaurants and conference rooms. Our wide range of technology offerings for the home include everything from house-wide music and TV systems to monitoring and control of heating and AC, entry systems, shades, lights, networks, Wi-Fi, energy management, surveillance and much more. Simplicity is the key to a happy client and ease of use is a focal point for all our installations. Accessing the tech in your home or office from your phone, tablet or touch panel is key, even when you’re away.

As our name suggests, the talents that really highlight our achievements are our private cinemas and home theaters. Designing a screening room that exceeds on all levels the specifications of any high-street cinema can be a major challenge but our commitment to both the technology and interior design ensure that the finished room is truly a sight, and sound, to behold.

Our two-year warranty covers all of our installations, providing our customers with the security of knowing they have invested their money wisely in a performance system unrivaled elsewhere.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Some of my most fond memories from when I was very young are traveling with my mother on vacations across England, Spain and Guernsey, a small island between England and France, memories that have led me to a keen travel instinct to this day. When I was just sixteen, I joined the Royal Navy in England where I served for seven years. Many of the friendships that came during my travels on ships are still as strong today as they were then. Traveling for me has been the greatest of educators and a pursuit I try to share with my wife and daughter as often as possible.”